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Essay:Imagine
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This essay is an original work by Javascap. It does not necessarily reflect the views expressed in RationalWiki's Mission Statement, but we welcome discussion of a broad range of ideas. Unless otherwise stated, this is original content, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 or any later version. See RationalWiki:Copyrights. Feel free to make comments on the talk page, which will probably be far more interesting, and might reflect a broader range of RationalWiki editors' thoughts. |
Now, lets play a small game of imagination. Lets imagine a world completely free of religion, a world where there is no form of supernatural worship in any way whatsoever. Imagine a world where every “faith” never even developed, just think of that world. Imagine a world where the Twin Towers still stood, because the religious extremism that led to those attacks never existed. Imagine a world without the Crusades, because the concept of “Holy Ground” did not exist for the Catholics to begin genocide against the Muslims.
Imagine a world where the feud in North Ireland never kicked off, because there was no “higher compulsion” to assert ones faith.
Imagine that the Dark Ages had not been extended by the Catholic Church’s clamp on thought and reasoning, or that the witch trials never occurred, or that the Klan never formed, compelled by their interpretation that a higher power made them somehow “superior”
Summon an England where Queen “Bloody” Mary never committed a genocide against the Protestants, fueled by her delusion of a higher power.
Try to conjure the thought of a world where Fred Phelps had nothing to babble on about, because the concept of his “higher power” did not exist.
Think about this world we live in, and look around. Pray to your god and throw a coin, and watch the results be non-significant. Read your reports of miracles, and think of the times where those miracles failed. Look through your holy texts, at the hateful and genocidal spite of the entity you worship.
Ask yourself, how many people have killed because they said, “God compelled me to?” versus have said “There is no god, so I might as well?”
Take a look at the world around you. Religion has had its chance to establish “tolerance”, and people of faith have long led the world, and look at the results today. Religion, by virtue of the “Right vs. Wrong” mentality is hardly a shining example of peace and prosperity.
So what is my suggestion? Lay your supernatural entities to the side, and recognize that they are ancient explanations for previously unexplainable phenomena. I say it is high time the world decided to serve mankind, rather then please some supernatural entity that is absurdly unlikely to exist.
I say that we live up to a world where you avoid being evil not out of fear of supernatural retribution, but out of respect to your fellow human race, a far more shining thing to aspire for, I do daresay.
So what does this make me? I accept that mankind needs to work together, and leave the churches to make room for farms and businesses, drop “In God we Trust” and “Under God” and recognize that entity would hardly care about the U.S as it is. Recognize that God plays no role in this world, and that "Faith" is another term for "Delusion".
One simple saying…
One God further.
Some sites[edit]
- Myths about Atheism
- Digs into the bible, but look what the Jewish and Catholic god hath wrought.
- Search “Religious intolerance” in Google news, and compare that to Athiest intolerance. May surprise you.
- Nowhere near as much as race, but religion made up 16.4% of hate crimes in the U.S in 2004. This becomes more interesting after looking at this.
- South Asia and religious intolerance
- The site that led me to discard my “faith”